Film and TV Technician (1957)

May 1957 FILM & TV TECHNICIAN '* Vtattum of ModJ^I Art EDITORIAL JOHN DAVIS LOOKS INTO THE FUTURE TYJE can well understand little " enthusiasm being displayed by the delegates to the Summer Conference of the Cinematograph Exhibitors' Association when listening to the paper read by their guest and fellow-member Mr. John Davis. After all no one likes being told they are out of date, inefficient, excessive in number and will have to go out of business, strictures which, as the speaker said, applied to many of Mr. Davis's audience. You like it less still when told the facts of life by the managing director of the industry's biggest combine which very much intends to stay in business, whoever else is forced to the wall. But it is not out of sympathy for impoverished and incompetent cinema-owners that we adopt the unusual course of summarising at length in subsequent pages the address given by Mr. Davis. Our views and policy on the economics of the monopolistic tendencies in the industry are well known. It is because Mr. Davis is one of the largest and certainly the most influential employer of our members and the first person, other than the Trade Unions, who has given real thought to the place of films in a changing world. One of the most significant views he expresses is the anticipation that Hollywood will lose its grip on the world's markets. Whether this is coloured by the fact that the American industry doesn't like Mr. Davis — and we hazard the reverse also holds good — is a matter of conjecture. Because of American product shortage Mr. Davis anticipates an increasing number of dubbed foreign films being shown on our screens, the European films commanding quotas as British films do now. If such films are shown at the expense of American films the idea is well worth investigating, and the intention is to have a European Common Market to smash the stranglehold Hollywood has had on our screens for the past forty years. However, we don't think shortage of product alone, particularly bearing in mind the change in exhibiting technique by road showing and longer runs, will necessarily lead to America losing its grip on the world's markets. But we must at all costs avoid a position whereby on the score of European unity we destroy the individuality of each national production industry — and incidentally adversely affect employment — as in that course lies death not life. But as members know, all the problems of co-production, implicit in Mr. Davis's proposals, were discussed as recently as our last Annual General Meeting. One gathers that Mr. Davis almost sees the motor-car as a greater competitor to the cinema than television. A rather odd thought from the man who distributed Genevieve'. But at least he is right in coming round to our point of view that cinema films and television are complementary parts of one big entertainment industry, and it is foolish for one to continue to seek to ignore and try to combat the existence of the other. But when it comes to solutions we must part company with Mr. Davis. Rationalisation, modernisation, efficiency — all, of course, admirable in themselves — are his solution. No mention is made of the tightening monopolistic control which such processes will put in his, and others', hands; no thought of the social implications of his policy; certainly no word about the workers who are to lose their jobs through these processes. We welcome Mr. Davis making his statement. We applaud its lucidity. We are grateful for his criticisms of incompetent and outmoded exhibiting and renting interests. Many of the problems posed are vital. A number of his thoughts are new and should be examined by us all. The joint committee of the British Film Producers' Association and the Trade Unions should discuss them. But in so doing we must face up to the issue, which Mr. Davis ignores, that in passing from a haphazard industry to a ruthlessly efficient one, meeting all the challenges of the times, we also have to safeguard both the public good and that of the workers in the industry by having that measure of public control, social ownership and joint industrial responsibility which is essential for those purposes. w Our New Cover E appear this month in our new cover, which symbolises the growing importance of Television. The design, by Jack Timms, Lettering Artist at Denham, was the winning entry in our Cover Design Competition. This month's cover still shows A.C.T.T.'s most recent Honorary Member, Charlie Chaplin, in the British film A King in New York, which was shot at Shepperton Studios. The film is distributed in the United Kingdom by Archway Film Distributors, to whom we are indebted for the still. FILM & TV TECHNICIAN Editor: MARTIN CHISHOLM Editorial Office: 2 SOHO SQUARE, W.l (GERrard 8506) Advertisement Office: 5 & 6 RED LION SQ., W.C.I (HOLborn 4972)